From: Logan Capaldo <logancapaldo@...>
Date: 2006-03-01T11:38:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Dynamic stuff and books

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On Feb 28, 2006, at 8:03 AM, Ross Bamford wrote:

> 'class' here is doing what you expect it to do - defining a class. But
> the class that's being defined is a singleton class belonging to the
> object on the rhs of the <<. Basically, objects in ruby can have two
> classes - the class of which they are an instance, and a singleton  
> class
> that relates to (and supplies methods for) just that object. This  
> syntax
> is for use with the latter.

Well actually it still has only one class. What happens is it injects  
the Singleton class into the inheritance hierarchy of the object  
before it's original class.

sort of like this (In not valid ruby):

a = "hello"

class SingletonClassForA < String
     def a_method
            self << " world"
     end
end

a.change_class(SingletonClassForA)

a.a_method

puts a

"hello world"




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